


Fit and Flare

by lucdarling



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Centaurs, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Other, Size Difference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:07:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26283886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucdarling/pseuds/lucdarling
Summary: Max can hear her guards faintly in the distance, calling name and title. She rolls her eyes, knows Billy can hear them better than she can ever hope to.His hooves are quiet on the dirt as he comes to stand next to her. He exudes warmth and animal stink, but Max is used to it by now. She follows him deeper into the forest, away from her sheltered castle life.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Maxine "Max" Mayfield
Comments: 15
Kudos: 21





	Fit and Flare

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my homage to the anon who gave us "Pescatarian" and "Chew Toy", among other wonderful stories. They are such a blessing for our rarepair and I am always excited to read everything they produce. I hope they, and you, enjoy this.
> 
> But it's also me who wrote this, so it's friends to lovers and not sleazy Billy. I did very little research on horse anatomy, and absolutely none on centaur sex. Which I know exists, I was in the Harry Potter fandom.

“You running away, again?”

Max leans over, panting as she tries to catch her breath. She had been running, grateful she remembered where her boots were hidden just inside the tree line. If she’d tried to outrun her guards in her usual slippers, her feet would now be wrecked.

She can hear them faintly in the distance, calling her name and title. She knows Billy can hear them better than she can ever hope to.

His hooves are quiet on the dirt as he comes to stand next to her. He exudes warmth and animal stink, but Max is used to it by now.

“Come on,” Billy sighs and hauls her upright with one arm like it’s easy. It probably is for him, he’s got over developed arms like the blacksmith’s boy. Max had tried to build her muscles by holding increasingly heavier books and gotten yelled at for making a mess when she dropped them when her arms shook.

Max follows him deeper into the forest, away from her sheltered castle life and the guards searching for any sign of her red hair. She trusts Billy to protect her.

They don’t speak until they’re at his clearing. It’s not a home, though Billy’s done his best with Max’s help. He’s got a hand mirror she may have lifted from one of those dreadfully dull princess-in-training seminars her mother always signs her up for, and an entire set of novels she had saved from the library culling that was instituted two years ago by the king. There’s even a small box of cooking things he’s either carved or had Max steal for him. His home is more of a lean-to shelter, open on two sides to the elements.

Billy says it doesn’t bother him, and maybe it doesn’t. He is only half-human, after all.

He kneels down to blow on the embers of this morning’s fire, coaxing them back to life to get coffee started. Max waits until she’s got her hands wrapped around a steaming mug before speaking.

“He says I have to get married.” Max tells her drink. She’s pleased at Billy’s reaction out of the corner of her eye, the slight widening of his blue eyes.

“You’re practically a foal,” he snarls, and his front hooves scrape the ground like if he makes himself threatening enough, the decision will be changed. Max wishes it were possible.

“A woman, now that I’ve bled.” Max says even more quietly. Billy wrinkles his nose and she shrugs. “I don’t want to get married, pop out some kids and spend the rest of my life chasing them around a castle made of stone.”

Billy tips his mug towards her, recognizing like.

“Trip to the river? You could do with a wash, you’ve got twigs in your hair.” Billy grins at her, changing the subject with no subtlety. He drains the last of his drink.

“You just want to see me in my shift.” Max rolls her eyes. As she’s gotten older, the flirting has gone from something subtle and his double entendres over her head to these one-liners that she turns down with a wink of her own. There is something between them, but Max reckons it’s because Billy is her best friend. It can’t be more than that. It shouldn’t be.

They became friends in the forest, both of them so far from home. Neither of them here in Neil’s land by choice. They both refuse to call him king in the privacy of the trees.

Max hadn’t understood until a few years ago what it meant that Billy always wore a seashell on a leather rope around his neck, a knotted bracelet around his wrist like the sailors she’s seen from the carriage window down at the docks. He really isn’t from here and Max had snuck a look at a map to understand.

Neil had found Billy, like a hunter tracks a fowl, at the other end of the country. He had Billy taken from his home, the ocean and sand and everything familiar, to be a prize in his forest. Something to hunt and scare and harm.

It’s why his clearing is so deep in the forest, a place that Max almost can’t find on her own. Though she knows she’s getting closer each time she runs between the trees, leaving her princess trappings caught on the roots. It takes her less and less time wandering to be found by Billy and led to the clearing.

The hunters haven’t found it yet, after all these years, and Max wonders if Billy has some magic in him. It wouldn’t surprise her.

“Fine.” Max sighs at his wide blue eyes and what Billy probably thinks is a pout. It’s more a grimace, like he isn’t sure how to be soft. Max knows he can be, in his own way, with her.

She follows him to the river and the little pool he built with logs and rocks. In the pool they’re safe from the current that would otherwise send them over the waterfall.

Max stays on the rocks, content to laze in the sunshine with the sound of the water rushing by. Billy walks straight in and sinks to the bottom, only bubbles letting Max know he’s still alive. She watches him resurface, flipping soaked hair from his face with a bright grin.

“Water’s feeling fine, you should try it!” He calls out. He’s always happier in the water and it makes her smile back at him.

Max doesn’t need much more cajoling, because the sun is hot and she’s starting to feel too warm even in her sleeveless summer dress. Her fingers are nimble on the laces, and she’s glad it ties on the side rather than in the back so she can undo it all herself. The idea of Billy’s thick fingers plucking at the strings sends something warm stirring through her.

She can feel the heat of Billy’s stare on her skin and ducks beneath the water. She comes up with a gasp, treading water as she makes her way into the middle of the river and what constitutes the deep end of the pool he built years ago.

Billy splashes her and starts a water fight like she’s a child again, except for the undercurrent of tension between them. His eyes linger too long on her shift, wet and clinging to her breasts. For her part, Max’s eyes catch on the way Billy’s soaked curls hang dark at broad shoulders and the beads of water that trail down his chest.

It’s a lot to look at, is what she’s saying. In the water like this, Max can forget that he’s a centaur. It’s easy to imagine him like he’s the boy from a neighboring kingdom, a potential suitor. It would make things easier, if he were. Her belly wouldn’t churn with the taboo feelings that have grown deeper and stronger with each visit she makes to the forest, all the time she spends with him. Max wonders what would happen if she swam over and pressed her lips to his.

Her dream is broken by a shout and an arrow zipping past. Billy’s arm turns red and he bellows in pain. Max stares, shocked and frozen before her brain kicks in.

She swims for the edge of the pool, yanking her dress over her head and leaving it unlaced. Billy is quickly trotting beside her, swearing as the sound of hunters bear down on them from the other side of the river.

“Get out of here, Max.” Billy yells. He’s got a knife in one hand, like it’ll do anything against arrows.

She tilts her head back and screams instead, a piercing shriek that scatters the birds from their nests. Maybe it’s from fear, or to scare these human men. It’s a stupid childish hope that the hunters will recognize that Billy has a human with him and try to rescue her instead - Max has had good opportunity to play damsel in distress during those stupid princess seminars.

Her plan backfires as the hunters shout words she never wants to hear at her best friend.

“The beast has a captive!”

“Do you think we can have a turn after him, or will she be too loose?”

The hunters jeer at whoever said the last line as Max pales and shakes her head. She takes a step away from Billy, who dances in place and holds out a large hand.

“I wouldn’t, Max. You know that.” Billy promises her quietly. Max knows this. “You need to run now. They’re not going to be kind if they catch you.”

“And you?” Max says, breathless. The hunters have stopped their volley of arrows, busy trying to figure out how to ford the river. It’s nothing more than a respite but it allows them to sneak away through the shrubs and saplings, putting more distance between them and the group.

The line on Billy’s arm is still bleeding sluggishly. She stops and leans down, tears at her shift until the fabric gives and she has a strip.

“I’ll be fine, little red.” Billy reassures her. He still lets her bandage his arm, tying it in place. Unthinkingly, Max leans forward to press a kiss on it. She steps back when she’s done, face burning. She’s glad for the height difference now since it means she doesn’t have to look him in the eye.

“A week,” Max says stubbornly to his hooves, not even daring to speak to his bare chest. “I’m coming back in a week and you had better be alright.”

“I’m always fine, don’t worry about me. See you in seven days,” Billy says. His lips thin and his head cocks to the left in the direction of the river, hearing things beyond Max’s ability. His tail twitches in irritation, slapping against his tan flank. “Now get out of here.”

Max leaves, crashing through the woods with only speed in mind and tearing her dress even more. She doesn’t look back at him. No one comes after her and she thinks that’s the worst of all.

Neil at dinner that night is glowering as he recounts his own afternoon travail.

“It had some sort of shelter,” he says, spearing a new potato on his fork. “We destroyed it, of course. I can’t imagine it will be very happy with us once it learns. We lost it in the forest, as usual. Maybe we should start clearing the brush, but that would take away from the sport of it I suppose.”

Max mechanically spoons her food into her mouth as Neil continues, telling her mother all about his efforts to capture the wild dangerous creature living in the forest. He doesn’t tell her that he was responsible for placing it there, for kidnapping it from its mother and the only home it knew years earlier.

“My scouts told me it had a woman when they caught it at the river this time. Probably a harlot from the village who wanted a good time. No doubt she got more than she bargained for.” Neil scoffs. “We put the word out, anyone caught with it will face execution for lying with it like a man.”

“That seems a little harsh,” Max comments quietly.

“What was that?” Neil peers down the table at her. “You have something to add?” She stays silent and he continues, warning her. “You stay out of the forest, Maxine. Something dangerous lives there and I’ve sent several experienced men in an attempt to eradicate it throughout the years. It tears them apart and spits out their bones. A little girl like you would be no challenge at all.”

Max’s mother sends her a worried glance. They both know the forest is where Max goes when she can’t stand the stone walls rising above her, trapping her in a life she didn’t ask for and doesn’t want.

“I’m sure Maxine knows better, honey.” The queen placates soothingly. “She’s a smart girl.”

“Running wild, too. I hear the stories from the castle servants,” Neil chastises her. “There will be no more of that. No slipping from your lessons, or losing your guards.”

“They must not be very good then, if a princess with bright red hair can manage to sneak away.” Max retorts before she can help herself.

Neil’s hand crashes against the table. She and her mother jump in unison.

“I think you’re done with your dinner, Maxine.” He thunders, face dark with anger. “We will see you at breakfast and not a moment before.”

“Goodnight.” Max tells her mother curtly and leaves the table. She’s never been happier to be dismissed, even though anger burns in her gut like a living ember.

It’s only when she gets to her room that she notices, thanks to the lit fireplace in her room, the hem of her dress is covered in burrs and leaf litter. She’s thankful no one, particularly Neil, noticed earlier.

Max sulks in her bed, covers pulled up to her shoulders. Neil isn’t her father, even though the title belongs to a man she hardly remembers now. It’s been too long.

Max had been a child when her mother had gathered her up and they had ridden for days in a carriage to a new castle that she had been told was now called home. She had been young, but not blind. Her mother needed a suitor and Neil had been nice, in the beginning. 

Now Max’s mother has become a ghost wandering the halls and spends her days in the garden, planting and weeding and pruning. Max wonders if that’s the life she’s destined for, moving from one man’s keep to another and only able to see the outdoors in a neatly ordered way.

It won’t be her life, if she has anything to say about it.

She promised Billy a week and the days pass slowly, like the last of honey left in the jar when it’s tilted over morning porridge. Max bounces between her dull lessons and the meal table, listening to the droning of men wherever she goes. Her mother is scarcely seen and Max stays quiet around the king.

At least he doesn’t leave for any more chance at sport against Billy. Max wouldn’t be able to help herself if that were to happen.

Max knocks on her mother’s chambers at the end of the fifth day. The door opens underneath her hand, unlocked. Her mother lays in bed despite the sun being high in the sky, a so-called perk of summer when the sun hardly sets before it rises again.

“Hello darling,” her mother greets. Her voice is soft and her pale hands rest on the coverlet she’s patching up.

Max sits next to her, gently. Her mother’s cheek is reddened and Max doesn’t need to ask questions she already knows the answer to. Her mother draws her into a hug, pressing Max’s face against her shoulder.

“I love you very much, my wild beautiful girl.” Max’s mother says against her hair. “Have you been so unhappy here?”

Max’s voice is stuck in her throat so she shrugs, awkward. It’s not been all bad, but that hasn’t been thanks to her mother.

“It’s had its moments,” Max allows and smiles even though mother can’t see it.

“Most of those in the forest, I imagine.” Max’s mother hums, stroking her hair.

Max pulls back, looks her mother in the eye. “He’s not a beast.”

“I never imagined he was. You come back from the forest with a smile. What’s his name?”

“Billy.”

Max’s mother smiles. “It’s unconventional, to be sure. But you’ve never really been one for the dresses and diplomacy.”

“I would rather stick the needle in my eye than in another cross stitch sampler.” Max mutters and it makes her mother laugh quietly.

“Yes, I rather thought so.” A sad look crosses her face briefly. “Neil is going to ask that you find a suitor. He will line them up, but you should know that it is likely he will choose.”

Max is shocked at the news, but only because of the timing. Neil is king, and his word is law. She thought she had another year before the suitors and balls and being a prize mare at auction.

“What are you saying?” Max’s voice is a whisper. She knows where this is going and buries her face against her mother’s neck again. She is soft skin and perfume and the best parts of Max’s childhood.

“I’m saying goodbye, dear.” Max’s mother says, even as she wipes a tear from her eye. “You have found something for you. A chance at happiness.”

“You can come with,” Max cries, desperate to free her mother.

“I can’t, sweet girl.” Her mother kisses her cheek then her forehead. “Life on the road is for young travelers, not for the likes of me.”

“I can write,” Max offers.

“Best not,” Her mother corrects, voice stern. “You know what to do, and where to go.”

Max does. She has a few more days to think it through, to plan. Instead, she climbs into bed that night and waits for darkness to fall.

The darkness isn’t much at all, a grey sky that washes only some of the color from Max’s hair in the mirror and turns everything into shadow. She doesn’t bother with a disguise or hood. The dark dress should be enough to blend in once she reaches the forest proper.

Getting to the treeline is no hardship, the route well worn from how many times she’s made the trip in daylight. Max only has to wait, heart in her throat as she stands pressed against the stone castle wall, for one patrol to walk past. They don’t even look at her.

She breaks into a run once she clears the first few rows of trees, uncaring about being quiet the farther in she travels.

She isn’t lost this time, knows where to step, leaping over fallen logs and tree roots. Her feet take her to the clearing and she stops so suddenly it’s a wonder she doesn’t fall.

Billy steps out of his shelter, eyeing her curiously.

Max shakes her head, trying to dispel a dream. The image in front of her doesn’t change and she takes a few steps towards him before barreling into him for an embrace. If he wasn’t built like he was, if he only had two legs for balance, he would have been bowled over.

Billy’s tail swishes back and forth, betraying his worry though he covers it with an irritated tone. “We agreed on a week, what are you doing here early?”

Max gathers her thoughts, even as she presses her head against his chest to listen to his heart beat. The height difference is beneficial in this instance though usually she’s straining to smack the top of his head without jumping when he ruffles her hair or has to stand on a tree trunk to brush his curls because Billy is as vain as they come. Now, she can stay in his arms and listen to his heart without being off balance.

“Heard at dinner that your shelter got destroyed. He seemed really pleased.”

“Oh, was my princess worried for me?” Billy goes to pinch her cheek but his hand just pets over the skin instead of twisting it like usual. Something has changed between them and Max isn’t sure how to name it, only knows that it has.

“Don’t be a jackass,” Max swats at him and steps away. Billy doesn’t let her get too far, big hands heavy on her shoulders.

“Wrong animal, little red.” He reels her in again, her back to his chest. His arms wrap around her shoulders, his forearms on the top of her breasts. It sends a thrill through her, knowing it would be so easy for Billy to brush his arms against her nipples. Max is certain they perk a little at just the thought.

“It wasn’t mine,” Billy explains. His eyes are dark blue when they look down at her. “Well, it was but a decoy. I’ve had it for a few years, thought those idiots would have found it sooner. I’ve got a couple of them set up throughout the forest.”

“Neil hates to have others smarter than himself around.” Max snickers. She’s relieved, seeing Billy alive and mostly unharmed in front of her. There’s the scratch on his arm from when they forcibly parted a few days ago and he’s got another mark on his back. Both are half-healed but they look like the only wounds. Not that Billy would tell her if they weren’t.

“Must hate you, then.” Billy says and it’s quiet. “Doesn’t see what a treasure he’s got right in front of him.” Max turns in his arms and watches those broad shoulder shrug, muscles flexing in the weak sunlight. “His loss.”

“Your gain,” Max breathes and rises up on her toes to kiss him.

Billy’s arms tighten around her. He gives her little pecks like she might pull away at any moment. She pulls at his bottom lip with her teeth and soothes the sting with her tongue.

“This all you want from me?” Billy asks, leaning down so Max can stand on her own two feet.

Max backs away, looks around the clearing. There’s a log that he hasn’t broken down for firewood yet, about the right height for what she really wants.

She walks over and sits on it, legs spread in a way most unbefitting of a lady. She hikes her dress and shift up so Billy can look between her thighs. Billy’s eyes widen as he catches on and his hooves prance as he sorts through his cooking things to find some oil.

Billy’s hand is warm and large on her thigh, petting the fine hairs and moving up to the trimmed hair above her mound. “It’s going to hurt, even with the oil.” He’s much larger than three of her fingers, which is the most she’s taken before.

“Think about how good it’ll feel to fuck Neil’s stepdaughter in his forest.” Max says wickedly, smirk on her face as she looks up at him. Billy is tall, taller than her by more than a head. He kneels on his front legs to make touching her easier.

“That’s not only why I like you,” Billy tells her quietly, one hand moving to cup the back of Max’s head.

“I know.” She spreads her legs and wraps them around his waist, lifts her hips up to brush against his warm human skin. “So are we going to talk about feelings or are you going to fuck me like I want?”

Billy reaches for the oil, pours it on his hand and his hand drifts down between them. Max’s hand meets his, fingers tangling together as he makes her wet. He pushes a thick finger into her and she gasps. Two fingers and Max moans. It’s high and breathy, he feels so good and large inside her.

Billy’s careful in stretching her, scissoring his fingers and making sure she can handle two before he tries to ease a third in. Max whines at the burn and how slow he’s going. She kicks him in the side with her heel.

“I’m not delicate!”

“You really are,” Billy smiles, showing his teeth. “It’s cute how you think you’re not.”

Max huffs and rolls her hips again, onto his three thick fingers. They crook forward and touch something inside her that makes her light up.

“Oh!” she gasps. In all her time spent alone, she had only found this spot once before.

Billy hums, twisting his hand as he stretches her for his horse’s cock. It makes Max yell, the sound echoing around them. She slaps a hand over her mouth, muffling her next shout as Billy crooks his fingers again and strokes over that spot which feels so good.

It feels like she has to pee and she tells him so.

Billy laughs at her, but not in a mean way. “Just relax, princess. Let go, embrace the feeling. You’ll feel so good.”

He’s right, and Max hates that he’s right. She tries but can’t hold onto her anger as her body relaxes against the log. Her legs shake because the feeling is like a wave crashing over her, something out of her control but in the best way. All of her nerves are on fire, swollen and alert to the lightest touch.

Billy pulls his fingers out slowly and she whines. She feels empty and hates it.

Billy pours more oil into his palm, reaches underneath himself to stroke his unsheathed cock. Max ducks under his bulk to watch. It’s large, and Billy’s hand barely fits all the way around the girth. Max’s mouth waters and she throbs between her legs.

“Please,” Max says, looking up at him. The sun is rising again and it turns his curls gold, highlighting the yellow. The seashell around his neck is a pale shadow against his throat.

“You don’t have to beg me.”

Usually she pretends not to notice but now, Max appreciates the difference when he rears up and plants his front hooves next to her shoulders. She feels small and protected under his weight.

Max shudders as his belly touches hers as Billy breathes out. It’s hot and hairy and her imagination didn’t even come close to the real thing when she touched herself beneath the covers alone at night. She has to tilt her head all the way back on the log to see the human part of him.

His cock is wet when it touches her belly. Max takes it in hand, feeling the heat and the weight of it. It’s heavy and so large. Max spreads her legs wider, feeling the ache as she stretches out to accommodate him.

“That’s it,” Billy breathes. He ruts against her gently, little moves that drag the head over her clit and her wet folds. “Remember to breathe.”

Max strokes him, brings him down to where she feels so empty. She holds her breath as he parts her slick folds and pushes in.

It’s more than a stretch and Max gasps, pants for breath as his head spears her. It almost feels good, if it weren’t for the size. It hurts.

“Breathe,” Billy reminds her. His hands soothes over her upper arm, callused fingers gentle on her skin.

“Fuck you.” Max tells him, trying to stretch her legs further. She wraps one hand around his front leg, stroking over the soft hair. “Give me a minute, you’re really goddamned big.”

Billy chuckles above her and stills. She knew he would.

Max breathes in and out, getting used to it, to him. To something inside her, filling her more than she thought possible.

She wiggles a little and pulls him in deeper. Billy groans above her, barrel chest exhaling and the front leg she isn’t holding stomping the ground as he waits.

“Can I move yet?” he asks, blue eyes catching hers when he leans forward and looks down. She’s nearly hidden under him, so warm it feels like she’s going to melt into the wood against her back.

Max hisses out as Billy does just that, without waiting for her answer. He’s so big, so long and heavy that Max will honestly be surprised if he manages to get even half of his length. The vein on the side of him rubs against her in the best way.

Billy pulls out, the ridge before the head catching on her hole and making her gasp again before he shoves in. Max shrieks, bliss and pain mixing together as the large head rams against her walls as he starts to move in an age-old rhythm, getting a little more into her with each thrust.

Max can feel the medial ridge press against her sex and she wants it in her even though she already feels so full. She snakes a hand down her stomach, wonders if she can feel his bulge through her skin if she presses hard enough.

It intensifies the pressure, that’s for sure. Max groans in time with Billy and kicks her legs up to dig her heels into his tan horse sides. Her hand wrapped around his front leg is sweating, sticky and probably glued to him at this point. She doesn’t care.

“Oh, right there!” Max cries out, lifting her hips to take him deeper. The head bumps something inside her and it’s a flash of pain, making her yelp. It’s quickly forgotten as that ridge pushes into her, stretching her almost as good as the head had. She screams, head thrown back in ecstasy. The pleasure is building inside her.

Billy fucks into her with as deep a stroke as Max’s little body can take, the ridge catching every time. She can’t take any more than that, not now. Maybe once she gets used to the feeling of his cock, large and filling her up more than she thought possible.

Two, three more thrusts and Max is coming again. She knows what it feels like now, but with Billy’s cock moving inside her it’s even more intense. She cries with the pleasure of it, walls clenching around him and holding his cock tight. Billy makes a sound she hesitates to call a whinny, but it is the closest comparison she has.

“I’m going to come,” Billy pants, lower half still rocking into even as Max shakes underneath his bulk.

“I hope so,” Max slurs. She’s tired now, her back aching from the log she rests on. She’s pretty sure her dress is ruined at this point. Her legs are still up in the air, held by Billy’s big hands as he fucks into her.

Billy doesn’t manage to give her any more warning than that and she feels him inside her. That wonderful head that Max had enjoyed so much against her walls grows bigger inside of her, flaring out as he starts to come.

It’s a lot. It’s intense and painful and Max comes a third time without knowing it was going to happen. Her voice is wrecked and her throat hurts. She thinks she screams but it’s hard to tell with her heartbeat in her ears, the sound of Billy roaring above her. He pumps into her, filling her small belly. Max rests her hands on the swell of it.

Max groans and her legs twitch in his grasp as he pulls out. The flare of Billy’s cock hasn’t fully diminished yet and she yelps at the momentary hurt when he pulls out. Come follows, sliding to pool on the ground beneath her and Max doesn’t even try to hold it in.

Billy steps back carefully, finally pulling himself off of Max. She misses his warmth immediately but knows it’s not the only reason for her shaking and tears. Her body has been through a lot, even though it felt good.

“Hey, little red.” Billy croons, settling down on his haunches to pull her against his chest. She curls close, one hand resting against the shelf of his broad shoulder. Her legs don’t feel up to bearing her weight quite yet. She’s wobbly like a newborn colt, slick and wet, aching between her legs. “You’re okay, you did great.”

“You should be thanking me for taking that monster cock.” Max grumbles against his sweaty chest. She’s glad he’s human here, no horse hair to stick to her lips as she mouths at his pec and sucks a bruise in vengeance.

Billy laughs, smoothing her hair away from her face with a large hand. He doesn’t thank her as such, Max would probably have to check for a fever if those words ever passed his thin lips. Instead, Billy scoops her up and carries her across the clearing as she dozes. She’s a tired, sweaty fucked-out slip of a princess right now. Being carried is nice and she might demand it every time Billy fucks her.

He sets her down in the nest of blankets and soft things Max has squirreled away over the years from the castle. She cracks an eye open when Billy doesn’t lay down next to her.

“Don’t tell me you actually sleep standing up.”

Billy shrugs, a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. “Not often. I do need to clean you up, though.”

Max swipes a hand through the mess and loudly agrees. She watches him saunter away, blonde tail swaying in time with his hips. He’s pleased, that much is abundantly clear. As soon as she can’t see his blond head through the trees, she makes a dash to the latrine. Her unsteady legs almost pitch her face first onto the packed dirt until she finds her balance.

Billy’s back a few minutes later after she’s sat down again, damp cloth wet from the river held in one large hand. 

He huffs as she twitches at the cold water, going so far as to hold her down with one strong hand against her belly. He’s gentle but it still stings, pressing against her tender sex. Max will be sore for a few days.

Billy settles down, legs under him once he deems her clean enough. There’s no fire and so Max tucks herself against his bulk as a shelter from the light breeze. She doesn’t know what time it is, doesn’t care. She pulls one of the blankets over herself, ignoring the hair that sticks to her clammy skin and the smell of it. It smells like Billy, who’s half horse. It’s fine, comforting even.

Max falls asleep between one breath and the next.

She wakes to Billy’s hand on her upper arm, shaking her.

“Guard change happens in twenty minutes, little red.” Billy informs her, voice quiet. “If you want to sneak back into that pampered bedroom of yours, you should leave.”

“And what if I don’t?” Max asks, picking at her nails. She flicks her eyes up to look at his expression and it’s blank. 

“What are you asking?” His blue eyes betray his cautious interest in her words.

“We could go,” Max says, curled against his bulk. He’s so warm and big, blocking the wind that’s only grown stronger as the birds begin to wake and chirp around their clearing. “Just bring a sack of food and I’ll take the candlesticks to sell. We can go back to where you come from. We can both see the ocean.”

“It’s a long ways away.” Billy says and he’s so gentle, like she’s still a child.

She grasps his arm, digs her nails into the corded muscle and listens to him hiss.

“I can get a map, Neil has several. My mother expects us to leave, practically gave her blessing.”

She sees the whites of his eyes when he rolls them around the clearing, like he’s expecting the guards to come rushing in any minute. Max clicks her tongue, getting his attention back on her and earning a scowl. She smirks at him.

“Brat.” Billy names her, but it’s fond. “So you want to leave, huh?”

“Better than waiting to be sold off to some old guy I’ve never met before.” Max mumbles. “He’s picking suitors next week, I heard.”

Billy tenses next to her before he consciously relaxes. “Yeah, okay. That gives you enough time for goodbyes, and picking out those candlesticks. I wasn’t kidding about the walk. It was so many days in a cart, I don’t even remember now.”

Max runs a hand through his hair as he frowns and something sad crosses his face. She hates seeing it. He tilts his head into her palm as she scratches at his scalp.

“We can leave in three days,” Max offers hesitantly. It won’t take her long to pack up what she needs to carry since she’ll have little use for fine dresses on the road.

“I’d like that, Max.” Billy rumbles, petting her hair gently in return. It’s one of the few times he’s said her name, not a nickname. She’s still sore; she can’t take his cock again so soon but something deep inside twinges at the affection.

It’s difficult, but Max pulls away from his loose hold and warm strong arms. She shivers, standing in only her shift before him. Billy wraps the blanket she slept with around her, unashamedly staring at her chest.

“Your dress is a lost cause.” He shrugs with a smile that isn’t sorry in the least. “Next time we fuck, don’t lay on something so rough.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Max says, stretching. “I think there’s bark lodged in my back.” She leans over and kisses him. He tries to deepen it and she pulls away before she gets lost in the feel of his lips, the smell of him. It’s difficult. “See you in two days.”

It’s easy sneaking back into the castle, though she imagines she makes quite the sight to any maid or butler leaning out the window with her red hair streaming behind her only dressed in her shift with a blanket around her for modesty. Max washes her face in her room, splashes water under her arms for the smell and promises herself she’ll take a bath after breakfast.

There’s no hiding her flushed face, swollen lips or the limp when she takes a step. She walks into the hall with her head held high anyhow, late for breakfast.

"Where were you, young lady?" Neil asks from the head of the table.

Max grabs an apple from the fruit bowl, bares her teeth before she bites into it. "Getting fucked."

Her mother chokes on her morning drink, a laugh disguised as a sputter. Her face is still swollen from what must be Neil's anger the night before. Max presses a gentle kiss to her mother’s cheek and skips out the door, the king already something left in her past.

It will be easy enough to avoid him for three days in a castle this size, between all his meetings and Max’s second nature at sneaking about. She’s gone longer without seeing him. By the time Neil realizes she and his candlesticks from the library he doesn’t use are gone, she and Billy will be on the road, the kingdom of Salton a bad memory. 

The ocean awaits and Max can’t wait to see it.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so very much to foxgirlontherun, who created a moodboard for this story: https://imgur.com/a/PcMxb3i


End file.
